The Shrieking Shack || The Marauders (Book 1)

9. REMUS

Professor McGonagall stepped forward holding a long roll of parchment.

"When I call your name, you will step forward, put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," she said. "Abbott, Miley!"

A tiny girl with blond hair stepped out of the line and put the hat on her head, but the Sorting Hat was so big that it fell right over her eyes and settled down on her shoulders.

"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat after a moment. The table on the right cheered and clapped and Miley went to sit down at the Hufflepuff table. Remus saw a fat little ghost at the Hufflepuff table wave cheerfully at Miley.

"Black, Sirius!"

The hat took longer this time before saying, finally "GRYFFINDOR!"

The boy under the hat stood up so quickly he almost tripped. He placed the hat back on the stool and ran his hand through his hair, trying to tame them down nervously. He then looked into the crowd of first years at James, who gave him two thumps up and went running towards the far left table which was exploding with cheers.

"HUFFLEPUFF!" The Sorting Hat announced once again for a boy who went hurtling towards the same table as Miley's.

"Evans, Lily!" a girl with bright red hair became another Gryffindor, but "Green, Helen!" became the first Ravenclaw and the table second from left clapped this time. "Gregory, Jason" was a Ravenclaw too, but "Gemstrode, Alana" became a Slytherin.

Gradually, as the knot inside Remus's stomach tightened again, Professor McGonagall called forth the next first year student and then the next, until finally:

"Lupin, Remus!"

Remus gulped and stepped into the limelight. He sat down on the stool and Professor McGonagall dropped the Sorting Hat over his head. He was looking at the black inside of the hat when a small voice spoke in his ears.

"Hmm, let's see," said the hat. "There's courage- oh yes- and a brilliant mind too, now that's interesting. You would make a good Ravenclaw, but a much better GRYFFINDOR!"

Remus heard the hat shout out the last word to the entire hall. He took off the hat and stumbled towards the Gryffindor table, where Sirius Black scooted over to make room for him.

He could see the teachers' table clearly now. At the centre of the table, in a large golden chair sat a wizard with long white beard and hair, wearing half-moon spectacles on one long crooked nose. Remus recognized him at once from the brief meeting they had had in August. It was Albus Dumbledore, the Headmaster of Hogwarts.

"Nightshade, Selena!" Professor McGonagall called and Remus looked again at the stool over which Selena now sat wearing the Sorting Hat.

The hat took almost a minute before bellowing "SLYTHERIN!"

Remus groaned as Selena took off the hat and looked at him with an apologetic smile, before bounding off to the Slytherin table.

"Was that your friend?" Sirius Black asked Remus as Selena settled down with her fellow Housemates.

"Yeah," said Remus.

"Sucks to be a Slytherin, wont it?" Black went on, "My entire family's Slytherin. I think I'm the first Black to end up in Gryffindor ever."

"I don't really know about my entire family," said Remus. "But my father was in Gryffindor too."

"And your mother?"

"Oh, she's Muggle," he said as a ghost wearing ruff and tights shushed at them irritably. "The Sorting Ceremony is quite important, you know," he said.

"And who're you?" asked Black, ignoring the ghost's remark.

"Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington," said the ghost haughtily. "Resident ghost of Gryffindor Tower."

"But we usually call him Nearly Headless Nick," whispered an older boy who was sitting next to Sirius. Nearly Headless Nick huffed up indignantly at that and drifted away to sit at the far end of the table.

"I'm Jasper Mathews, by the way. And as the Gryffindor prefect," he said, pointing at the little 'P' batch on his robes, "I should really ask you to be quiet."

They both turned scarlet, nodded and looked up at Professor McGonagall who called out- "Pettigrew, Peter!"

Peter stumbled forward, almost falling on his own robes again. A few of the students sniggered. Remus's throat constricted, one of the two friends he had made on the Hogwarts Express had already ended up in a different house.

Hushed conversations broke off in the hall as Peter sat on the stool for longer than any of the other first years Remus could remember.

"Merlin's beard, will he ever get sorted?" Black whispered.

It took about five minutes for the hat to decide and it finally announced "GRYFFINDOR!" Peter placed the hat back on the stool and walked happily towards Remus amidst some confused yet loud applause from the Gryffindor table.

"Potter, James!"

James walked confidently over to the stool and had just slipped the hat over his head when it boomed "GRYFFINDOR!" Sirius Black clapped the hardest as his friend swaggered through the hall towards them with a big grin plastered across his face. "Oh, no!" Lily Evans, who was sitting in front of Peter, groaned as Sirius made space for James.

It was around ten minutes later when the Sorting Ceremony finally ended and Professor McGonagall rolled up her scroll and took the Sorting Hat away.

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A/N: And that was the sorting ceremony. I hope you guys enjoyed it. Please do comment to tell me how it was, your comments really make my day and motivate me to keep on writing. 

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